Issue #53, Fall 2014
Mistakes
Creative Nonfiction #53, our first-ever readers' choice theme issue, is dedicated to MISTAKES. We've collected an explosive group of essays exploring wrong turns and missteps—from a dramatic prison protest to an ill-advised game of strip-spin-the-bottle, from a bad tattoo to the epidemic of errors plaguing our healthcare system. Together, these true stories grapple with questions that get at the heart of how to live.
Plus, why building a platform is a waste of a writer's time, why publishing won't make you happy, and why readers shouldn't worry (too much) about the occasional typo. With illustrations by Kelly Blevins.
This issue is currently sold out.
A digital edition is available here.
READ NOW
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What's the Story? by Lee Gutkind
From the editor -
"Platforms" Are Overrated by Stephanie Bane
Writers shouldn’t worry so much about building a presence on social media -
Letting Go of Shame
A conversation with Best Essay prize-winner Suzanne Roberts -
What You Learn in College by Karen Donley-Hayes
How to play strip spin-the-bottle -
The Correctors by Carol Fisher Saller
Think you can be a copyeditor? It's more complicated than it looks
Table of Contents
From the Editor Lee Gutkind ... read more
"Platforms" Are Overrated Stephanie Bane ... read more
Does Publication Make Writers Happy? Patricia A. Nugent
The Correctors Carol Fisher Saller ... read more
My Father Scott Loring Sanders
The Same Story Suzanne Roberts
What You Learn in College Karen Donley-Hayes ... read more
The Botch Job Joe Oestreich
Don't Scream Bill Pitts
Lessons Catherine Musemeche
Wrong Turn Arthur Plotnik
Still, Standing Ennis Smith
Without a Tighter Breathing Gladys Haunton
Contributors
Lee Gutkind
Lee Gutkind, recognized by Vanity Fair as “the Godfather behind creative nonfiction,” is the founder and editor of Creative... read more
Stephanie Bane
Stephanie Bane is a brand strategist at Smith Brothers Agency, whose clients have included Nestlé, Heinz, and Red Bull. She recently... read more
Patricia A. Nugent
Patricia A. Nugent is the author of They Live On: Saying Goodbye to Mom and Dad, a compilation of vignettes portraying the stages of caring... read more
Carol Fisher Saller
Carol Fisher Saller is a senior manuscript editor in the Books Division of the University of Chicago Press and editor of The Chicago Manual... read more
Scott Loring Sanders
Scott Loring Sanders lives in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. In 2014, he had a story featured in The Best American Mystery Stories,... read more
Suzanne Roberts
Suzanne Roberts is the author of the memoir Almost Somewhere (Winner of the National Outdoor Book Award), as well as four collections of... read more
Karen Donley-Hayes
Karen Donley-Hayes’s work has appeared in The Journal of the American Medical Association, Bartleby Snopes, Blue Lyra Review, The... read more
Joe Oestreich
Joe Oestreich is the author of two books of creative nonfiction: Hitless Wonder: A Life in Minor League Rock and Roll and Lines... read more
Bill Pitts
Bill Pitts is writing a book about the Georgia “work camp” prisons of the 1950s and ’60s. His research includes... read more
Catherine Musemeche
Catherine Musemeche is a pediatric surgeon and the author of Hurt: The Inspiring, Untold Story of Trauma Care, from which this essay is... read more
Arthur Plotnik
Arthur Plotnik is the author of eight books, including Spunk & Bite: A Writer's Guide to Bold, Contemporary Style and The Elements... read more
Ennis Smith
Ennis Smith’s work has appeared in the anthology New York: Lost and Found; Ganymede; and Boys in the City. He has also been a dance... read more
Gladys Haunton
Gladys Haunton has taught courses for impaired and institutionalized adults as well as college courses in writing and literature at... read more
